The Glorious Five by Dr Daniel Krause, klassic.com
http://magazin.klassik.com/reviews/reviews.cfm?TASK=REVIEW&RECID=16540&REID=10942
Translated text:
Along with one of Beethoven’s early piano quartets Chopin’s second piano concerto in f-minor, was recently recorded by the Alexander String Quartet together with Roger Woodward. Their interpretation turned out to be a masterpiece through the use ……Their interpretation turned out to be a master piece through the use of lean, but colorful sound effects, the finest agogic and an intimate understanding of the possibilities of musical rhetoric. With Radio Bremen as the co-producer, the accompanying booklet does not offer a translation. But it is ultimately the responsibility of Celestial Harmonies- from Tucson Arizona- that a German text is not supplied. This makes the extensive essay in English written by Roger Woodward even more informative.
It is unusual for a performer to provide such a well informed and intelligent discussion of the interpreted pieces, and equally unusual for the underlying performance principles to be discussed in such a straightforward and sensible fashion, especially the booklet. This allows Woodward to substantiate his claim that the present chamber version may have possibly been the original version: “It is possible that it was in this enlarged string form that the first private
performance was accompanied by a small chamber orchestra form when Chopin first [……]1830”
Moreover, the unusual instrumentation, at least from current perspectives, is not out of line with the performance practices of Chopin’s time: “ The post-Baroque….......... light accompaniment“. The common late baroque practice of a light string accompaniment in the form of a quartet or quintet, had already been adopted by Mozart in his first piano concertos following those of Johann Christian Bach. Therefore, Chopin’s arrangements followed a well-established tradition.
All these doomsday prophets who blast the string quartet version talk about Chopin’s lack of orchestration abilities, being too heavy handed, and the tuttis being too compacted especially because the Alexander Quartet and Roger Woodward selected the sound of the Boesendorfer over that of the more dazzling and powerful Steinway. By creating a rich and highly nuanced sound spectrum these glorious musicians have taken it on themselves to rehabilitate Chopin and, respectively create the most translucent sound effects.
Given that Chopin’s most exceptional accomplishment lies in the fact that he somehow manages to transmit the sound of the Italian bel canto opera, especially Bellini’s, to the keyboard—an instrument that is by no means designed to sing—these are the ideal Chopin interpreters. This applies to both phrasing, and articulation, and as far as the strings are concerned, to sparing, but yet powerful vibrato openings.
A piano quartet composed by a fifteen-year-old Beethoven is included as an extra gift, a piece which in many places resembles either a most professional finger excercise or talent show and in hindsight, may spark thoughts of genius. Here again it is a remarkable level of technical mastery that is displayed by the performing musicians.
…..merely a dry run when compared to his most recent Bach enterprise. Now Woodward has presented us with both books of the Well-Tempered Clavier. They appear in meticulously prepared editions with the limited deluxe version in black-box sets with facsimiles of the original autographs.
But above all it is the level of musicianship that is responsible for this first class production . Woodward is an exceptionally reflective artist. In his two extensive companion essays he offers an overview of the checkered performance history and varied ways in which [Bach’s] collections have been received.
Woodward uses the ‘construct’ of legato cantabile to explain the composer’s musical ideal (and of his contemporaries) on the harpsichord. What this term refers to is a performance that resembles the human singing voice. The refined performance techniques thus used allow us to forget the restrictions of instruments with limited resonance.
From that perspective Woodward examines the performance possibilities of the other keyboard instruments from the time of Bach (clavicord, spinet, organ and early fortepiano). Since the end of the eighteenth century the hammerklavier began to take a central place amongst them. While its ever more voluminous sound makes it easier to maintain the legato playing illusion, offering thereby totally new dynamic and coloristic possibilities, limited touch control does tends to obliterate the contours of the music.
Woodward himself plays the ultimate of modern grand piano construction, the model D Steinway. With this opulent medium at his fingertips he manages to produce a synthesis of different sound effects and interpretative models without being caught in one extreme or another. It is not Woodward’s mission to imitate the dry and transparent sound of a harpsichord, as attempted by Glenn Gould.
Neither does he share Daniel Barenboim’s inclination to interpret these pieces in the spirit of Leopold Stokowski, as the piano version of the romantic orchestral repertoire. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that for Woodward Bach’s clavier music foretells not only the spirit of the Romantic and the Impressionist periods, but also of modern constructivism.
Woodward’s interpretation incorporates the organic structure of counterpoint, the exploitation of bold well- tempered harmonics, and a contemplative concentration on sound along with flashing virtuosity, and a clarity of musical lines and orchestral effects.
Last but not least, the above mentioned portrayal of ‘cantability’ helps to pull it all together. The fact that Woodward further opens up the full sound of his instrument, orchestrating it further with his pedal gives his performance a free flowing, breathing, if not, swinging character. Right at the opening of the first book, the C-major Praeludium flows as if emanating from a larger wave movement.
Besides adding expressive powers, changes in tempo help to clarify the structure of the music. At other points the deep sound of the bass strings, wrenches the guts before the listener becomes completely intoxicated by the rest of the music. Ornamentations that quickly lose their clarity on the piano always sound clear and effortless, providing not mere ornamentation but also color. Is this due to Woodward’s flawless technique or the instrument’s acoustic properties? Both contribute to the successful interplay of those forces which together have the makings of a new standard.
Die Aufnahme erscheint gleichzeitig in verschiedenen Versionen:
I & II m. Booklet + Taschenpartitur in Box: Nr. 19922-5
I m. Booklet + TP in Box: 14281-5
II m. Booklet + TP in Box: 19921-5
I & II m. Booklet 19122-2
I m. Booklet: 14281-2
II m. Booklet: 19121-2
20/20
Georg Henkel
(Translated by Adriana Schuler)
The Gramophone, February 2010 – Editor’s Choice
Perahia’s Partitas . Woodward’s wonderful Bach . Horowitz celebrated….
Imaginative performances by Woodward that rank alongside the very best.
SUDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG 17. April 2010,
REINHARD J. BREMBECK
Shiva meets Bach
...These recordings resulted in four-and-a-half stellar hours ……
http://www.theartsdesk.com
CD Review by Graham Rickson – 24 September 2011
Bach: The Well Tempered Clavier, Books 1 and 2
Roger Woodward - piano (Celestial Harmonies)
Possibly the most expansive Well-Tempered Clavier around – this one just tips over onto five discs, but there’s never any suggestion of sluggishness. Roger Woodward has been mentioned in these pages before – Australian born, he came to prominence in the 1970s as an interpreter of the thorniest modern repertoire. But he’s never neglected the core piano repertoire, releasing revelatory recordings of Chopin, Debussy and Beethoven during the past decade alongside excursions into more offbeat territory. He also writes eloquent, articulate sleeve notes. We’re not short of good, modern recordings of this work – Angela Hewitt’s two versions are standard recommendations, but this one is even better. It’s partly a matter of tempi – when Woodward does take slightly more time over the busier preludes, the clarity is sensational – I’ve never been more aware of what’s going in Bach’s inner part writing. And the timbre of his modern Steinway is captured with incredible fidelity and warmth – a sound so refulgent that it’s like reclining in a warm bath.
You’ll find yourself listening to this in huge chunks, ignoring more pressing domestic duties. The austerity of many of Bach’s fugue subjects still surprises – the eerie single line kicking off Book 1’s F minor fugue sounds extraordinary here, before the entry of the other voices gives us the harmonic stability we’ve been craving. Book 2 can be a more forbidding experience - the mood feels slightly more academic and it’s not always as melodically rich, but Woodward manages to make things intimate and approachable. This is music making which makes life worth living – stick on Woodward’s account of the little C# prelude in Book 2 and it’s balm to a troubled soul. I’ve not mentioned the luxury packaging – each book presented in a matt black box, complete with a perfectly legible facsimile of Bach’s manuscript to follow while you’re listening. Both volumes are objects which you’ll want to bequeath in your will. Woodward will be playing Book 1 in Taunton on October 2nd. Go and hear him if you’re within driving distance
Even on only a first hearing, taking the music and performance in by osmosis while engaged in another little sideline of translating Dutch into English, the magic of this recording soon established itself. Having heard many of these pieces live and at times being rehearsed frequently, and having examined and worked with them in detail while making arrangements, I do feel a close affinity with this music, even though it will always be way beyond my meagre abilities at the keyboard.
Roger Woodward’s first complete recording of both books of the Préludes by Claude Debussy was made after a highly successful concert at the Chamber Music Hall of Radio Bremen. He clearly felt at home in the location, and one with the Bösendorfer piano used, the instrument having been restored by a factory technician, and tuned and engineered to perfection. The recording brings out the warmth and sustaining power in the piano, which has a notably different sonority to the more bright and brilliant shine of a Steinway. Just listen to the low final notes of the opening Danseuses de Delphes and you will hear where the foundation of the sound sits in the soundboard, the strings encouraging an almost endless field of colour for Debussy’s harmonies.
My own reference in terms of recordings has for a long time been that of Cécile Ousset on her 1986 EMI two disc set 7 47608 8 which is now long out of print, though she does have a recording available on Berlin Classics label. I also lived with Claudio Arrau on Philips for a long time, which is another beautiful set. I found it made me depressed for some reason, in the same way as rainy afternoons when there are no CDs to review. Roger Woodward does not make me feel in any way sad and soulful though his playing – on the contrary, his performances are life affirming, a spiritual journey indeed and one which at times may move you to tears, but one which ultimately lifts one beyond the clouds. Even his Des pas sur la neige have a ‘Scotch snap’ feel to that rhythmic feature of the main theme, something given a certain broad expressive licence by many pianists. In this case it might illustrate someone picking their way over thin ice rather than leaving a trail in deep snow. The massive tumult of the following piece, Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest, is a remarkably powerful statement in Woodward’s hands, and one can hear where Messiaen would have picked up on such a wild image of nature in music.
Contrast, rich imagery and drama are all composed into these Préludes, but Roger Woodward breathes life into the notes at every turn. The sonorities of the Bösendorfer suits La cathédral engloutie particularly well. Just listen to the notes from about 00:40 in: the most evocative distant bells I think I’ve ever heard in a recording. The build-up to the great bass chime at 2:38 is a truly cathartic moment, and the whole experience is a remarkable monument to Debussy’s pictorial imagination and modernist thinking. Woodward takes 7:22 here compared to Ousset’s 5:46 but the difference is no indulgence, the sustaining power of the Bösendorfer strings making a lengthier exploration of this music all the more powerful. Woodward’s timings are by no means excessive in general, and he frequently comes in under Ousset’s durations in the lighter pieces. What Woodward is prepared to do is allow Debussy’s curtains of sound full expression with his pedalling in something like Brouillards which begins Book II of the Préludes. His clarity is faultless to my mind, but washes of sound are allowed to grow and swirl like the spread of watercolours over damp paper. The mysterious dance rhythms which grow out of the music here and there are also particularly piquant in these performances. The Habanera of La puerta del viño works on us like an echo from a lost and distant past, a sound to which ghosts may dance, but which mortals may only witness through sidelong glimpses around the corners of the Alhambra Palace, and a deeply felt awareness of its past peoples. This seriousness of purpose does carry through to the cakewalk of Général Lavine – eccentric, whose asymmetrical gait carries a ruminating frown despite plenty of bounce in the rhythms, and whose quasi-pomposity raises a wry grin rather than a belly laugh. The humour of Pickwick is also pretty much subsumed in marvellous and colourful pianism, though the spirit of fun in this music has perhaps always had a Gallic way of escaping me.
Without wanting to gloss over the marvels to be found in all of these Préludes, I’ll just mention the fireworks of Feux d’Artifice. I hope Roger Woodward’s fingernails didn’t suffer any painful damage, but you can hear them rattle hard against the keys on the downward glissando at 00:25. This performance has everything: those washes of colour, and the sharp contrast of clarity in those notes which rise and sparkle through those improbably rich textures, those harmonic progressions pushed strongly by that chunky Bösendorfer resonance. A favourite of my mate and accompanist Johan the piano, I’ve heard this piece on innumerable different instruments and in more than one hemisphere, but I’ve never heard it in as spectacularly a breathtaking performance as this.
One of an increasing number of recordings of the complete Préludes on a single CD, this disc is not only terrific value in terms of its timing, but also the best performance I have ever heard. There is competition of course. Pascal Rogé on the Onyx label is a single-disc release and has to be a contender, and Steven Osborne on Hyperion also provides good value. Krystian Zimerman comes in at an even more improbable 84:00 on his single Deutsche Grammophon CD. I’m happy to stick with Roger Woodward though. This recording has been something of a revelation for me, crammed full with new discoveries in the potential of these pieces and of the piano as an implement for pure musical expression. I’m left lacking superlatives, and can only urge you to try this recording for yourself.
Dominy Clements
Along with one of Beethoven’s early piano quartets Chopin’s second
piano concerto in f-minor, was recently recorded by the Alexander
String Quartet together with Roger Woodward. Their interpretation
turned out to be a master piece through the use of lean, but colorful
sound effects, the finest agogic and an intimate understanding of the
possibilities of musical rhetoric.
With Radio Bremen as the co-producer, the accompanying booklet does not
offer a translation. But it is ultimately the responsibility of
Celestial Harmonies- from Tucson Arizona- that a German text is not
supplied. This makes the extensive essay in English written by Roger
Woodward even more informative.
It is unusual for a performer to provide such a well informed and
intelligent discussion of the interpreted pieces, and equally unusual
for the underlying performance principles to be discussed in such a
straightforward and sensible fashion, especially the booklet. This
allows Woodward to substantiate his claim that the present chamber
version may have possibly been the original version: “It is possible
that it was in this enlarged string form that the first private
performance was accompanied by a small chamber orchestra form when
Chopin first [……]1830”
Moreover, the unusual instrumentation, at least from current
perspectives, is not out of line with the performance practices of
Chopin’s time: “ The post-Baroque….......... light accompaniment“.
The common late baroque practice of a light string accompaniment in
the form of a quartet or quintet, had already been adopted by Mozart in
his first piano concertos following those of Johann Christian Bach.
Therefore, Chopin’s arrangements followed a well-established tradition.
All these doomsday prophets who blast the string quartet version talk
about Chopin’s lack of orchestration abilities, being too heavy handed,
and the tuttis being too compacted especially because the Alexander
Quartet and Roger Woodward selected the sound of the Boesendorfer over
that of the more dazzling and powerful Steinway. By creating a rich and
highly nuanced sound spectrum these glorious musicians have taken it on
themselves to rehabilitate Chopin and, respectively create the most
translucent sound effects.
Given that Chopin’s most exceptional accomplishment lies in the fact
that he somehow manages to transmit the sound of the Italian bel canto
opera, especially Bellini’s, to the keyboard—an instrument that is by
no means designed to sing—these are the ideal Chopin interpreters.
This applies to both phrasing, and articulation, and as far as the
strings are concerned, to sparing, but yet powerful vibrato openings.
A piano quartet composed by a fifteen-year-old Beethoven is included as
an extra gift, a piece which in many places resembles either a most
professional finger excercise or talent show and in hindsight, may
spark thoughts of genius. Here again it is a remarkable level of
technical mastery that is displayed by the performing musicians.
18 February 2009
Collins & Woodward at the MRC
Melbourne // VIC // 11.02.09
by Mark Viggiani
Image of Collins & Woodward at the MRC Image: Roger Woodward and Geoffrey Collins
Internationally prominent Australian virtuosi Roger Woodward (piano) and Geoffrey Collins (flute) gave the opening performance in the Melbourne Recital Centre’s intimate Salon. The title ‘First Performances’ was perhaps a misnomer, as none of these works were premieres, but came across as personal favourites of the performers. All were presented with a typically high level of assured musicianship and warmth.
Woodward and Collins are representative of a traditional style of concert performance, eschewing overt communication with the audience and allowing the music to speak for itself. This it did most eloquently, as we were treated to a convincing performance of twentieth-century repertoire. All works presented were inspired or commissioned by the performers themselves and date from the 1960s and ‘70s. Possibly due to hurried preparations, the program was significantly different to that originally advertised, with only two of five scheduled works being heard.
There is also the possibility that the program amendments were suggested by the idiosyncratic nature of the venue’s acoustical properties. The Salon is an intimate space with a clear and honest acoustic. The audience sits in close proximity to the performers, especially when the stage area is set up along the longest wall, as on this occasion. The high ceiling ensures good projection, and there is a notable absence of extraneous noise such as air conditioning. Effective soundproofing has created a truly silent room, where it is possible for performers to communicate at very quiet dynamic levels but where any audience noise is embarrassingly noticeable.
The recital opened with a couple of duets by Anne Boyd, whose music attempts to combine Christian love with Buddhist silence. This is realised in a timeless modality, incorporating Indonesian and Japanese pentatonicism and an absence of harmonic movement. Her music does not develop or progress but concentrates attention to the single moment. Goldfish Through Summer Rain (1978) was memorable for Collins’s rich and full lower register, used to great effect in the simple pentatonic melodic shapes.
Red Sun, Chill Wind (1981), based on much of the same material, is a more fully developed work. Boyd exploits extremes of register and extended instrumental technique, and the pentatonic scale material is augmented by an added note, which gives the piece a sour chromatic aspect and allows for intriguing harmonic possibilities. The flute part explores quarter tone colourings, overblown harmonics and glissandi, and there were also moments where Collins directed his sound into the strings of the piano, which might have been more convincing in a more reverberant room. This more sophisticated approach to articulation, harmony and density revealed a deeper yet more refined manifestation of Boyd’s distinctive musical voice.
The advertised Xenakis work was replaced by Takemitsu’s For Away (1973) for solo piano. Woodward displayed his fantastic range of tone and dynamic control in this kaleidoscopically impressionistic work, one of the highlights of the recital. Not a nuance was lost as the pianist highlighted the slow-moving middle register heart of the work, balancing the more obvious dramatic gestures that shifted in and out of the foreground. This was a compelling performance, where the textures remained complex but clear. Woodward also played with exquisite timing and sense of space, revealing a perfect understanding of the venue’s acoustics.
Next, the pianist moved to a prepared piano for a third piece by Boyd, the well-known Angklung (1974) for piano solo, which requires that the note E natural be retuned to an untempered F flat. The resulting pitch places the work in a bewitchingly alien yet personal sound world. A work of extreme economy, the austere pitch material is manipulated into short phrases that wind down into subtle ostinati, where time is suspended in subtle variations of repeated single notes. Woodward’s dynamic control produced a meditative and compelling performance of this proto-minimalist work. It would have been enlightening to also hear the advertised work Book of Bells III (1998) as an example of how Boyd’s personal expressive language has evolved since the 1970s.
Woodward was rejoined by Collins for the final work in the program, Richard Meale’s Sonata for flute and piano (1960). A busy, complex work in three movements, this dramatic conflict-based music contrasted well with Boyd’s more static pieces. Both players negotiated the considerable difficulties of this work with virtuosic aplomb, the flute arabesques supported by ever-evolving ostinati in the piano part. Most memorable was the short final movement: there is a definite sense of arrival as the flute triumphantly blasts out fanfares in the piercing top register, where the work abruptly concludes.
The performers briefly acknowledged applause at the end of each work, but some more information about the music might have been instructive, since both performers are intimately involved with the works themselves. There were no program notes apart from performers’ biographies. Although none of the presented works could lay claim to being exactly new music, it was satisfying to hear these works presented so expressively as established concert repertoire, in such a sympathetic venue.
Event details
‘First Performances’
Music by Anne Boyd, Richard Meale and Toru Takemitsu
Roger Woodward, piano
Geoffrey Collins, flute
Wednesday 11 February 2009
Melbourne Recital Centre’s Salon, Melbourne, VIC
PIANISM IN A GRAND MANNER
Graham Strahle | June 02, 2009
Article from: The Australian
Shostakovich: 24 Preludes and Fugues. Pianist: Roger Woodward. Recitals Australia. Elder Hall, Adelaide, May 30.
ADMIRED since the 1970s as a leading interpreter of contemporary piano music, Roger Woodward can be idiosyncratic when he wanders into mainstream repertoire, which he has done repeatedly through his career.
That’s what makes him interesting.
His present project is a marathon and typifies the personal approach he takes to his instrument.
It involves performing all the 24 preludes and fugues of Bach and Shostakovich in successive nights: two mountains for the keyboard separated by 238 years.
Woodward has done it once before, in San Francisco, now in Adelaide, and will repeat the feat in Nuremberg later this month. …..
…. His interpretations are intellectually strong yet superbly balanced. Rhythmic energy is there in abundance, as may be expected, but so too are poise, control and melodic beauty.
In his Adelaide performance, Woodward’s care over voicing stood out above all. He gave gives a natural, breathing quality to melodic material, bringing themes out from the surrounding texture and making total sense of the music.
The fugues were rapid and utterly clear, kept at an unrelenting tempo to give them tautness and strength.
There was terrific power in the passacaglia-based Prelude No.12 and pure ferocity in its matching Fugue. Woodward served up some pounding force, too, in Prelude and Fugue No. 15.
But he was able to unearth the full gamut of emotion in these pieces: joyousness in the radiant Fugue No.7 and even moments of romantic warmth, in Prelude No.23.
Woodward was in top form and magnificent throughout, showing complete mastery of Shostakovich’s multifaceted contrapuntal art.
It seemed he just couldn’t keep his hands off the Elder Hall’s Bosendorfer grand. Its clear middle register and strong, resonant bass seemed to perpetually fire him up.
Once the cycle was done, and after many in the audience had visibly had their fill of Shostakovich, he was smartly back for three encores: an even more resolutely powerful performance of Prelude and Fugue No.12, and two rapturous Debussy preludes for good measure.
The Sydney Morning Herald: June 16, 2008
Exhilarating approach from a humble pianist
Reviewed by Harriet Cunningham
Roger Woodward, City Recital Hall, June 13.
Roger Woodward strode onto the stage, acknowledged his audience with a self-deprecating smile and then sat down and entered into another world.
Dmitry Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes And Fugues, Op. 87, are not for the faint-hearted. Written in 1951, in the temporary shadow of the Zhdanov Decree of 1948, they are defiantly abstract, cerebral and infused with the spirit of Bach. Woodward’s approach mirrored Shostakovich’s bold (and potentially foolhardy) stance, a principled asceticism which dodged the temptation to linger over any lyricism. It worked brilliantly.
Far from being cold and imperious, Woodward’s humble austerity, combined with a machine-cut accuracy, had the effect of slowly building warmth and intensity, backed by a burning conviction in the right of these notes to just be.
Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, by contrast, began with the sunny C major Prelude, all sweetness and light and drawing a bell-like clarity from the instrument. Woodward’s technique remains manifestly flawless: his shoulders barely move, balancing his monk-like shaven head, as if concentrating all energy into the hands.
There is no clue from the body language as to what is going to flow out from these powerful tools; a deep breath, a turn of the page and then exhilarating cascades of a breakneck C sharp major, a determinedly perfect D major and on, up the keyboard, into the time-stopping poise of D sharp minor ….. ……. One last thing. Why, for this, the first complete performance of Shostakovich’s Preludes And Fugues in Australia, was there no recording, no broadcast? A missed opportunity.
A day of new music
by Dominic Gill (Financial Times, 6th October 1981)
[...]
Xenakis’s title is not evocative. “Mists” is another piano solo in the genre of his “Herma” and “Evryali”: torrential, thunderstruck piano writing, full of sudden halts, strange twists and turns, and violent surges. Woodward gave it with concentration and panache: exciting to witness as a tour de force pure and simple, a bolt of naked keyboard energy.
After substantial flirtations with sforzandi, and even some crescendi, during the latter years of the 1970s, Morton Feldman has returned to writing very quiet music. His new “Triadic Memories” never rises above the dynamic of triple-piano, and many phrases are marked ppppp. It is also just over one and a half hours long. It is so quiet and so long that gradually the aural focus shifts away from the piano towards all the other little regular concert hall noises which compete with it for attention: the squeaks, sniffles, buzzing electric lights, creaks and coughs.
Chief among these was the accompaniment throughout the piece of a quiet gurgle of water, like a dozen contented guinea-pigs, through the ICA’s rainwater pipes. If there had to be an accompaniment, we could have asked for none better: a natural partner of the music, moist and delicate. Feldman’s own image of the work is different: he calls it “probably the largest butterfly in captivity.” But to me it seemed more humid and ephemeral, like the mist on a bathroom window pane.
Morton Feldman’s Triadic Memories
by Robert Henderson (Daily Telegraph, 6th October 1981)
That it consists of no more than 25 pages of spare, conventionally notated patterns of sound, yet lasts for an hour and a half and never rises above a gentle pianissimo, should indicate something, if only on the most superficial level, about the nature of Morton Feldman’s new piano piece, “Triadic Memories,” which was written for, and given its first performance by, Roger Woodward at the ICA.
The pulse rate, or rather the rate of change, is extremely low, the music mainly unfolding through hushed, obsessive, minutely calculated repetitions of brief chordal segments or simple decorative figures. Almost as exhausting as Wagner’s Rheingold, but for very different reasons, such microscopic music, music which depends on the almost infinitesimal fluctuations of response, frequently hovering within the dynamic range of triple to quintuple piano, and in which any hint of expression is accidental, demands unusual concentration, not only on the part of the performer but also on that of the audience, very few of whom failed to stay the course.
Described by the composer as probably the largest butterfly in captivity concerned with the shape of a leaf and not the tree, each tiny segment taken in isolation possesses its own peculiar beauty, their cumulative effect as they dissolve slowly into one another, one of a near trance-like stillness and immobility.
Where Feldman is exceedingly parsimonious with his notes, Xenakis in his much shorter piece, “Mists”, also written for Roger Woodward and receiving its first London performance, is lavishly unrestrained; where Feldman remains consistently just above the threshold of audibility, Xenakis goes to the other extreme, his more conventional bravura dramatic and fiercely rhetorical.
Yet Feldman, in his quietly hypnotic economy and Xenakis in his exuberance seem to share one thing in common: for when, within a given piece, everything is unexpected, everything begins to sound curiously the same.
Feldman premiere
by Hugo Cole (The Guardian, 5th October 1981)
Those who think that all contemporary music sounds alike should have been at the ICA last night to hear Roger Woodward play new works by Xenakis and Morton Feldman. The contrast between the furious activity and violent fluctuations of mood of the first and the enigmatic serenity of the second could not be greater, and reflects attitudes to music as far separated as they could possibly be; Xenakis’s “Mists” is based, we’re told, on “non-octavating pitch sieves” and “arborescences rotated in the pitch-time space,” mathematical processes which few have ever been able to follow, while Feldman has denied that he follows any processes at all. His only technical comment on the 90-minute “Triadic Memories” is that grace notes are to be played not crisply, but somewhat delayed, each with its own isolated ring.
Both, however, provided in different ways fuel for Woodward’s virtuosity. “Mists” makes use of many textures and figurations derived from common pianistic stock, but fed through the filter of Xenakis’s strange imagination so that the music comes out wildly distorted; a wrong-note idiom carried to extremes, where there seem to be no expectable notes to give us our bearings; but with a rhetorical power that compels attention.
Feldman’s work - much longer than the Choral Symphony - takes up only 26 pages of score, though these include passages in Feldman’s labour-saving notation where three written notes can occupy 75 seconds. The piece is played pianissimo throughout; the psychological effect is often like that of an elasticated Webern work; we become acutely aware of the distant gurgling of an ICA cistern, of the air-conditioning, of every breath drawn by our neighbours.
In spite of earlier disclaimers, Feldman shows much ingenuity in dislocating his slow basic rhythm, throwing parts out of synchronisation or building in faint hesitations by ingenious notational means. To get the most out of this music, one should not be a critic with a deadline to meet and probably would do better without a score - the mysteries of chords 11 times repeated are revealed before their time if you are following the music.
Woodward’s performance was an extraordinary feat of control; to play for 90 minutes pianissimo and almost senza espressione must be the hardest thing in the world; while Feldman’s ability to spread music so very, very thin without losing his thread or his audience, is also not to be underestimated. It was significant that the few who left, left in the early stages of the work. Given time, this music seems to cast its hypnotic spell over most listeners. As a reaction against the busy-ness and absurd over-concentrations of meaning in most intellectual Western music, “Triadic Memories” makes its point clearly.
the project
BACH FOR THE 21st CENTURY
Roger Woodward presents the most exciting Bach since Glenn Gould
BWV Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue d minor
BWV 826 Partita No. 2 c minor
BWV 830 Partita No. 6 e minor
Roger Woodward surprised some by including Bach in his concert performance of Debussy and Chopin at the Radio Bremen concert hall in January 2007. Woodward simply explained that to him Bach was a romantic composer as well. This only sounds daring until one has listened to the recording at hand. And one should also remember that Friedrich Blume, in the authoritative German music dictionary MGG, wrote more than half a century ago that “Bach’s language anticipated much which was later expressed during the German Romantic era”.
This is Woodward’s first recording of works by J.S. Bach although he had played Bach all his life. As one can expect from a musician of Woodward’s calibre this is an interpretation outside the square.
Already in the first part, the Fantasia from BWV 903 - composed in Coethen around 1720 - a deep understanding is shown of what might have caused Bach to place this ‘free’ section ahead of the Fugue. Woodward plays the Fantasia as such. In the ensuing Fugue Woodward shows his complete understanding of the structure, takes all those liberties, however, which Bach had always expected of himself as well as of all performers of his music.
The Partitas No. 2 in c minor BWV 826 and No. 6 in e minor BWV 830 might also go back to the time in Coethen around 1720, chronologically not far removed from the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in d minor BWV 903; they originate from Bach’s most productive stage in his life as far as secular music is concerned, and they show the composer at the height of his creative power. Bach published them himself in Leipzig in 1726.
It illuminates Woodward’s interpretation that he takes three minutes more for the Partita No. 6 on the recording compared to his concert performance. It is a more deliberate, circumspect and more thought-through version revealing fine details which possibly cannot come across in a concert hall compared to the intimacy of the recording studio
Woodward’s recording was produced in Wörthsee, Bavaria, on the same Hamburg Steinway D which he had used for his Chopin Nocturnes (Celestial Harmonies 14260-2). By now he knew the instrument well and felt totally familiar with it.
Of the producer and engineer Ulrich Kraus Woodward remarks that he is a musician rather than a technician; a friendship links musician and engineer who by now have not only co-operated in the recording of Chopin but also in that of the large cycle ‘Of the Sound of Life’ by Peter Michael Hamel (Celestial Harmonies 13256-2).
Woodward speaks with the greatest respect of the interpretations of the past - George Malcolm, Helmut Walcha, Gustav Leonhardt to name just a few. Nevertheless he goes further and beyond anything that might be considered orthodox or conservative. But this is an organically continuing development which uses and incorporates all the possibilities that a first-rate modern instrument has to offer, just as Bach would have done if the available technology in his lifetime had allowed him. From that point of view Woodward continues what Glenn Gould started in the sixties and Alexis Weissenberg continued in the seventies: to understand Bach as an ever-new, always contemporary composer whose unequalled greatness manifests itself in the endless possibilities of an ever-new understanding.
BACH FÜR DAS 21. JAHRHUNDERT
Roger Woodward reüssiert mit dem aufregendsten Bach seit Glenn Gould
BWV 903 Chromatische Fantasie und Fuge d-moll
BWV 826 Partita Nr. 2 c-moll
BWV 830 Partita Nr. 6 e-moll
Als Woodward Anfang 2007 unmittelbar vor der Aufnahme dieser CD bei Radio Bremen Chopin, Debussy und Bach in sein Konzertprogramm aufnahm, waren einige überrascht. Zur Erklärung sagte er nur, für ihn sei Bach eben auch ein romantischer und impressionistischer Komponist. Das klingt nur solange gewagt, bis man die vorliegende Einspielung gehört hat. Und man sollte dabei in Erinnerung behalten, daß Friedrich Blume in MGG schon vor über einem halben Jahrhundert schrieb, daß „Bachs Sprache über die Zeit vorausgegriffen [hat] auf das, was in der deutschen Romantik zum Ausdruck gekommen ist”.
Dies ist die erste Veröffentlichung Woodwards mit Werken von J.S. Bach; und das, obwohl Woodward stets Bach gespielt hatte, ein Leben lang. Wie bei einem Musiker vom Range Woodwards nicht anders zu erwarten, ist es eine Interpretation außerhalb der Schablone.
Schon der erste Teil, die Fantasie, aus BWV 903 – entstanden in Cöthen um 1720 - zeigt ein tiefes Verständnis dessen, was Bach wohl animiert haben mag, diese ,freie’ Werk der Fuge voranzustellen; Woodward spielt die Fantasie eben als solche. Bei der Fuge zeigt Woodward sein vollkommenes Verständnis der Struktur, nimmt sich hingegen alle diese Freiheiten, die Bach schon immer sowohl von sich selbst als auch von seinen Interpreten erwartete.
Die Partiten Nr. 2 c-moll BWV 826 und Nr. 6 e-moll BWV 830 gehen wohl auch auf die Zeit um 1720 in Cöthen zurück, zeitlich nicht weit entfernt von der Chromatischen Fantasie und Fuge d-moll BWV 903; sie stammen aus Bachs wohl produktivstem Lebensabschnitt, was weltliche Musik angeht, und zeigen den Komponisten auf der Höhe seiner kreativen Schaffenskraft. Bach veröffentlichte sie um 1726 in Leipzig im Selbstverlag.
Erkenntnisreich für das Verständnis Woodwardscher Interpretation ist die Tatsache, daß er für die Partita Nr. 6 im Studio ganze 3 Minuten länger braucht als im Konzert. Es ist eine tiefere, bedächtigere, durchdachte Version, in der sich Details zeigen, die im Konzertsaal vielleicht nicht hörbar oder in angemessener Form vermittelbar wären.
Woodwards Produktion entstand im Januar 2007 im bayerischen Wörthsee auf eben dem Steinway D, den Woodward bei seiner 2006 entstandenen Aufnahme der Chopin-Nocturnes (Celestial Harmonies 14260-2) benutzt hatte; inzwischen fühlte sich Woodward mit dem Instrument total vertraut, wenn nicht heimisch.
Über den Produzenten und Tonmeister Ulrich Kraus sagt Woodward, er sei ein Musiker, kein Ingenieur; eine Freundschaft verbindet Musiker und Tonmeister, die inzwischen nicht nur bei Chopin, sondern auch bei der Einspielung des großen Zyklus Vom Klang des Lebens von Peter Michael Hamel (Celestial Harmonies 13256-2) zusammengearbeitet hatten.
Woodward spricht mit größtem Respekt von den Interpretationen der Vergangenheit, George Malcolm, Helmut Walcha, Gustav Leonhardt, um nur einige zu nennen. Dennoch geht er in seinen Bach-Interpretationen weit über alles hinaus, was als orthodox oder konservativ gelten könnte. Aber es ist eine organische Weiterentwicklung, die alle Möglichkeiten eines erstklassigen zeitgenössischen Instruments berücksichtigt und einbezieht, so wie es wohl auch Bach getan hätte, wenn es zu seinen Lebzeiten die existierende Technologie erlaubt hätte. Insofern führt Woodward das fort, was Glenn Gould in den 60er und Alexis Weissenberg in den 70er Jahren begonnen hatten: Bach als immer neuen, immer zeitgenössischen Komponisten zu verstehen, dessen unerreichte Größe sich eben in den stets unendlich vielfachen, immer neu erscheinenden Interpretationsmöglichkeiten dokumentiert.
PREIS DER DEUTSCHEN SCHALLPLATTENKRITIK
Die Zahl der bedeutenden Bach-Interpreten am modernen Klavier ist gro und die Namen reichen hier von Glenn Gould bis Andras Schiff. Nun
gesellt sich mit dem Australier Roger Woodward ein Mann dazu, der erst im Alter von 64 Jahren seine erste Bach-Aufnahme verfentlicht hat. F
das amerikanische Label celestial harmonies hat Woodward jetzt 2 Partiten und die bermte chromatische Fantasie und Fuge von Johann
Sebastian Bach eingespielt. Wilfried Scher er ein spes und beeindruckendes Bach-Debut vom fften Kontinent…
CD-Tipp 7. 11. 07, 10.40 Uhr Roger Woodward spielt Bach (Wilfried Scher)
Als der australische Pianist Roger Woodward im Januar dieses Jahres im Sendesaal von Radio Bremen Johann Sebastian Bachs Partita Nr. 6
spielte, waren nicht wenige im Publikum regelrecht verstt. So ein Bach-Spiel hatte man lange nicht geht: viel Pedal, ein manchmal fast
romantischer Klang und eine Verzierungskunst, die man in dieser Form nur von Cembalisten kennt. Noch nie in seiner mehr als 50-jrigen
Laufbahn hatte Roger Woodward Musik von Bach im Studio aufgenommen, doch nun zieht er mit seiner ersten Bach-CD die Summe unter ein grortiges
pianistisches Lebenswerk…
Musik CD Woodward, Track 11 Beginn, ausblenden
Roger Woodward ist eine lebende Legende am Klavier, ein Mann, der mit allen musikalischen Gren zusammengearbeitet hat und mit allen Wassern
gewaschen ist. Lange Zeit galt er als die Ikone der modernen Klaviermusik, doch auch Beethoven, Chopin oder Debussy begleiten in sein Leben lang. Dieses breite Spektrum und seine riesige musikalische Erfahrung kommen auch Woodwards Bach zugute. Der Australier spielt einerseits mit analytischer Klarheit, andererseits nimmt er sich Freiheiten, die so manchen Bach-Puristen erschrecken dften. Hier spielt ein gror Musiker, der sich nicht um Konventionen schert und gerade deshalb dem Universum von Johann Sebastian Bach besonders nahe kommt…
Musik CD Woodward, Track 8 Beginn, ausblenden
Roger Woodward und Johann Sebastian Bach, das ist eine Paarung von Interpret und Komponist, die reichlich Zdstoff bietet. Woodwards
erragendes und intelligentes Spiel gliedert Bachs komplexe Polyphonie und macht sie beim Hen unmittelbar verstdlich. Aber auch der starke
emotionale Gehalt dieser Musik wird bei ihm so deutlich wie selten. Anders als Glenn Gould vermittelt Roger Woodward auch die Wme von
Bachs Kunst, seine meditative Versenkung und religie Tiefe. Es gibt Stimmen, die das Bach-Spiel von Roger Woodward f das
spannendste seit Glenn Gould halten. Auf jeden Fall ist dem Australier mit seiner Einspielung von 2 Partiten und der chromatischen Fantasie
und Fuge ein ganz gror Wurf gelungen, eine CD, die bleiben wird…
Musik CD Woodward, Track 2, von ca. 440 bis Schluss
BBC Review Roger Woodward, July 2007
The Project
A co-production between Celestial Harmonies and Bayerischer Rundfunk, VOM KLANG DES LEBENS / OF THE SOUND OF LIFE features pianist Roger Woodward on a Steinway model D, playing Peter Michael Hamel’s cycle of works composed for and dedicated to his wife and new son. The producer/engineer for the recording sessions in January 2006 was Ulrich Kraus.
Long before he discerns the light of the world, still in the womb, nascent man begins to sense the sounds of life. Long before his spirit attempts to differentiate experiences, develop ideas or make his mark on the path of history, he begins to hear the force that creation determined for us.
The French doctor Alfred A. Tomatis was able to demonstrate that the sense of hearing is already fully developed in the fifth month of pregnancy. The sound of his mother’s voice, the music that accompanies her and the notes that could harmonize with his own personal sounds, all are experienced by the ear while still bathing in the Amniotic fluid. Passionately devoted to all that sound has ever meant to man, the already multiple father accompanied the latest pregnancy of his wife in the early 90s in more than one sense—Peter Michael Hamel, an excellent improviser and interpreter at the keyboard, played the piano. He had always delighted in creating metrically complex pulsating rhythms, as if this gift were given to him from the start. In this manner he journeyed into his subconscious, demonstrating, to the joy of the mother and the growing empathy of the yet unborn child, the music of our world.
Hamel extemporized and begun to write down short passages: private notes, day by day, month by month new tonal discoveries, revealing the experiences and ambitions of his own life story. Some of these ideas—a melody, a turn of phrase—found themselves represented in several pieces. The final embodiment of the music was to be a group of twelve meaningfully arranged studies for piano. Composed over a period of fourteen years, between 1992 and 2006, the cycle can be understood as an idealized diary, embodying central motifs from Hamel’s understanding of himself as a person and an artist.
The order of the pieces and the general structure of the cycle VOM KLANG DES LEBENS / OF THE SOUND OF LIFE were only determined by Hamel quite late. Two almost identical pieces dedicated to John Cage frame the work: Arrival and Departure, between which are works dedicated to Alfred A. Tomatis, Miles Davis, Morton Feldman, Walter Bachauer, Dane Rudhyar, Pandit Patekar, Olivier Messiaen, Giacinto Scelsi, Iannis Xenakis, and his son, Johann David Antonin.
The framework of the whole cycle is a multicultural place of action and of possibilities. Life, and all its sounds are represented symbolically, and new growth can always begin. Maybe that is what Peter Michael Hamel was thinking when he improvised for mother and child: “Primal trust for all.”
http://musikansich.de/ausgaben/1006/reviews/a_chopin.html
English Translation:
Musik an sich…October 2006, by Sven Kerkhoff
PHANTASTIC
If only all pauses could be so productive! The, by now, 63 year old pianist Roger Woodward has returned to the music scene after a 5 year pause in his creativity and has come up with the complete recording of Chopin’s Nocturnes which is equal to none. Woodward is primarily known through his interpretations of contemporary music: Takemitsu, Feldman, Pärt, Xenakis and others. The fruits of this intensive occupation with different realms and hues of sound are also influencing his interpretation of the Nocturnes.
Woodward approaches them with great gentleness so that the playing times of the individual pieces lie clearly above that of other interpreters. Virtuosic tinkering with the keyboard is foreign to him. His concentrated interpretation is well thought out, now and then pensive and contains embellishments of astonishing yet never conceited liberties.
The pianist demonstrates how strongly and in what breathtakingly modern way Chopin has worked with and at sound colours. The recording proves, moreover, that the breadth of the colour palette does not depend on the choice of an (historically correct) instrument. Although everything sounds lighter on a Steinway than, for example, on the fortepiano (compare the recording with Baart van Oort) this does not essentially influence the overall impression.
With Woodward this lighter tonality does not lead at all to a lighter result. On the contrary, his playing is melancholic in a startling way, fathoms precipices to the utmost depth and blocks any possible escape via dazzling hollow phrases. There is a question mark behind all. The ethereal sound constructions arise like phantastic dreamscapes - and dissolve like them. But those landscapes are of such ravishing beauty and the farewell from these never tangible constructions so painful that one has to continually catch one’s breath.. Whoever could not, until now, marvel at or cry over Chopin will learn it here.
Producer and sound recorder Ulrich Kraus has sympathetically captured this exceptional interpretative achievement and been alert to every mood of the instrument.
Unconditional recommendation! 20
Recent Commentary: (with English translation below)
CD-Tipp für „Klassik-Zeit“ / 15.05 Uhr
Do 21.09.2006
KW: 38
Red.: Gisela Walther Tel. 2930
Kostenträger: 4625 1300
Autor/in:
Covertitel /
Interpreten:
Firma / Label:
ggf. Vertrieb:
Bestell-Nr.:
LC:
hr-Archiv-Nr. Niels Kaiser
Fryderyk Chopin. The Complete Nocturnes
Roger Woodward
Celestial Harmonies
Naxos Deutschland
14260-2
7869
6 151 528
um 15.05 Uhr (Erste Pos.):
Über das australische Musikleben weiß man in Europa nicht allzu viel, trotz einiger bekannter Namen wie dem der Intendantin der Hamburgischen Staatsoper Simone Young, des Gitarristen John Williams oder der Sopranistin Joan Sutherland. Zu dieser ersten Generation australischer Musiker, denen eine Weltkarriere gelang, gehört auch der inzwischen 63-jährige Pianist Roger Woodward. Nach 5-jähriger Kreativpause hat er jetzt bei dem amerikanischen Label “Celestial Harmonies” eine Gesamteinspielung der Nocturnes von Frederik Chopin herausgebracht. Woodward spielt diese den meisten Hörern klassischer Musik wohlvertraute Musik auf eine zugegebener Maßen recht eigenwillige Weise. Seine Interpretation wird manchem vielleicht sogar schon als ein wenig gewagt erscheinen; gleichwohl aber ist sie originell und rührt aus einer jahrzehntelangen tiefernsten Beschäftigung mit dieser Musik. In stiller Zurückgenommenheit sucht hier ein gereifter Musiker das esentliche und interpretiert die Chopinschen Nachtgesänge auf seine ganz eigene Art. Hören Sie Roger Woodward mit dem Nocturne in F-Dur op. 15 Nr. 1
1 5’07 6 151 528 104 0 Trois Nocturnes Opus 15: F major
Roger Woodward spielte das Nocturne in F-Dur aus opus 15 von Frederik Chopin. Seit drei Jahren ist der australische Pianist Professor für Klavier an der San Francisco State University. Ausgebildet wurde er in seinem Heimatland von dem Rachmaninow-Schüler Alexander Svertensky. Während seines späteren Studiums in Warschau war kein Geringerer als Svjatoslav Richter sein Mentor. In den 70er Jahren machte Woodward sich einen Namen als Interpret von Neuer Musik. So hat er das gesamte Klavierwerk des japanischen Komponisten Toru Takemitsu eingespielt. Woodwards Interpretationen der Chopinschen Nocturnes klingen reif und bgeklärt. Er arbeitet mit ungewohnten Betonungen und setzt interessante, oft überraschende Akzente. Auf Effektmittel wie
Verzögerungen oder Rubati verzichtet er ganz. Von dem Klangzauber oder gar dem Virtuosentum eines Artur Rubinstein, in dem Woodward sein historisches Vorbild sieht, ist das schon weit entfernt. Genauso wie von dem eleganten Spielfluss, wie er auf Mauricio Pollinis im vergangenen Jahr erschienenen Einspielung zu hören war. Am nächsten kommt Woodward vielleicht der in sich gekehrten Versunkenheit, mit der die Kanadierin Angela Hewitt vor zwei Jahren die Chopin-Nocturnes eingespielt hat.
Woodward geht mit einem eher direkten und trockenen und dabei sehr klaren Anschlag zu Werke. Vor allem aber lässt er sich sehr viel Zeit. Wo Pollini oder Rubinstein 4 Minuten auf ein Nocturne verwenden, benötigt Woodward sechs. Er scheint die Musik gleichsam anzuhalten, um so ihre Feinheiten hörbar zu machen. Mit dieser Akzentverschiebung auf die musikalischen Einzelereignisse öffnet Woodward dem Hörer die Ohren für Dinge, die sonst im Fluss der Musik verborgen bleiben oder gar verloren gehen können. So etwa im Nocturne in g-moll aus opus 37.
2 7’32 6 151 528 201 0 Deux Nocturnes Opus 37: G minor
Unter den Fingern von Roger Woodward erklingt Chopins Nocturne in g-moll op. 37 Nr. 1 in ganz ungewohnten Farben. Im Booklet seiner CD spricht Woodward von einer immer wieder möglichen Neuentdeckung der Chopinschen Nocturnes. “Egal, wie oft man sie spielt”, sagt er, “sie werden immer anders klingen, als wären sie ein anderes Stück”. Sicher ist das auch einer der Gründe, weshalb Woodwards Vorbild Artur Rubinstein die Nocturnes sogar gleich dreimal in seiner Laufbahn aufgenommen hat. Woodwards Einspielung entstand in sorgfältiger Feinabstimmung mit dem Produzenten Ulrich Kraus, in dessen zurückgezogenem Tonstudio am Wörthsee nahe München die Aufnahmen stattfanden. Die subtil ausgehörten Klänge, die Woodward einem Hamburg Steinway D mit Elfenbeintasten entlockt, verbindet Ulrich Kraus mit einer entsprechend klaren Mikrofonierung. Interpret und Produzent ermöglichen dem Hörer, in einer wohlvertrauten Musik noch einmal Neues zu entdeckten. So gesehen ist der Slogan, den das Label der Doppel-CD in seinem Katalog verpasst hat, sicherlich zutreffend: Roger Woodwards Interpretation der Chopinschen Nocturnes, so heißt es dort, sei eine “besondere Aufnahme”. Ob das zutrifft, können Sie jetzt noch einmal überprüfen anhand des vermutlich bekanntesten Chopinschen Nocturne in Es-Dur aus opus 9.
3 6’15 6 151 528 102 0 Trois Nocturnes Opus 9: E flat major
18’54 Musik-Gesamtzeit CD-Tipp
Langsam aber vollkommen sicher geht auch der letzte Ausschnitt von unserem heutigen CD-Tipp zu Ende. Der Australier Roger Woodward spielte das Nocturne in Es-Dur op. 9 Nr. 2 von Frederik Chopin. Erschienen ist die Gesamteinspielung der Nocturnes mit Roger Woodward bei dem amerikanischen Label “Celestial Harmonies”. Ergänzt wird die Aufnahme von einem hervorragenden mehrseitigen Booklettext, der auf ein Gespräch mit Roger Woodward zurückgeht und spannend sowie detailreich in das musikalische Denken des Interpreten einführt.
Verlosung:
CD [ggf. Kassette] zu gewinnen mit Anruf auf der Nummer 01804 155 200* [pro Anruf 24 Cent] - heute bis 17 Uhr
oder e-Mail an: hr2@hr-online.de / Stichwort (Betreff): CD-Verlosung bis heute 24 Uhr
Gewinner/in der zuletzt vorgestellten CD vom spanischen Label Glossa: und zwar die Folge 1 einer geplanten Gesamtaufnahme aller Italienischen Kantaten von Händel mit den Sopranistin Roberta Invernizzi und dem Ensemble „La Risonanza“.
Der CD-Tipp morgen:
Zwei Streichquartette von Robert Schumann, das erste und das dritte, zum Gedenkjahr neu eingespielt von einem hervorragenden jungen französischen Streichquartett, dem „Quatuor Renoir“.
Forts. hr2 „Klassik-Zeit“ aus DABS bitte später im Programm nochmals an die Verlosung erinnern
________________________________________________________________________
TRANSLATION
CD tip for Klassik-Zeit (Classic time)
Thursday, 21/09/2006
Edited: Gisela Walter
Hardly anything is known in Europe about the musical life in Australia despite some well known names like the director of the Hamburg State Opera Simone Young, the guitarist John Williams and the soprano Joan Sutherland. Roger Woodward belongs to this first generation of Australian musicians who achieved world renown. He has now issued the complete recording of Fryderyk Chopin’s Nocturnes on the American label Celestial Harmonies. Admittedly Woodward plays these familiar pieces in a very individual way. Some people night find his interpretation even a bit daring: nevertheless it is based on decades of serious contemplation of this music. In quiet introversion a mature musician is searching here for the essence of the work and interprets Chopin’s Nightsongs in his very own way. Please listen to Roger Woodward playing Nocturne in F-major op. 15,no1
Roger Woodward played the nocturne in F-major from op.15 by Fryderyk Chopin. For the past three years the Australian pianist has been professor of piano at the San Francisco State University. In his homeland he studied with the Rachnaninov pupil Alexander Sverjensky. During his later studies in Warsaw no other than Sviatoslav Richter became his mentor. During the 1970s Woodward made his name as interpreter/performer of the Avant Garde. He has, for instance, recorded the complete piano music of the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu.
Woodward’s interpretations of Chopin’s nocturnes are mature and mellow. He provides unusual stresses and surprising accents. He completely avoids special effects or rubati. His version is far removed from the bewitching sound or even the virtuosity of Artur Rubinstein who Woodward considers his historical model as well as from the elegantly flowing recording which Mauricio Pollini published last year. Woodward’s is perhaps closest to the quiet contemplation which the Canadian Angela Hewitt showed two years ago in her recording of the Chopin Nocturnes.
Woodward skilfully goes about his ‘work’ with a rather direct and dry yet very clear touch, taking his time. While Pollini or Rubinstein use four minutes to play a nocturne Woodward takes six. He seems to be able to seemingly stop the music in order to make its subtlety audible. With his shift of accents onto individual musical happenings Woodward makes the listeners’ ears receptive to things which normally remain hidden or even disappear in the flow of the music.
Take for example the nocturne g-minor from opus 37. Under the hands of Roger Woodward the Chopin Nocturne in g-minor op.37, no1 resounds with quite unfamiliar coloration. In the booklet to his CD Woodward speaks about the potential of a continuing rediscovery of the nocturnes. “No matter how often one plays them”, he said,” they will always sound different as if they were a totally different piece of music”. This might surely be the reason why Artur Rubinstein, Woodward’s example, has recorded them three times during his career.
Woodward’s recording was produced by Ulrich Kraus in his reclusive sound studio at the Wörthsee near Munich.
The subtly fading sounds which Woodward draws out of a Hamburg Steinway D with ivory keys are caught by Ulrich Kraus with correspondingly clear recording. In this way the performer and the producer make it possible for the listener to discover new elements in this well known music. With this in mind the slogan which Celestial Harmonies has given to this double CD in their catalogue seems certainly appropriate. It describes Roger Woodward’s interpretation of Chopin’s Nocturnes as a “special recording”. You might like to determine if this is the case while listening to the probably best known Nocturne in E-flat major op.9 . Slowly but perfectly assured the last part of today’s CD-tip comes to an end. The Australian Roger Woodward played the Nocturne in E-flat major op.9, no 2 by Fryderyk Chopin.
The complete recording has been issued by the American label Celestial Harmonies. It is supplemented by an exceptional multi-paged booklet which is based on an interview with Roger Woodward and which introduces the musical thinking of the performer in a fascinating and detailed way.
“Roger Woodward comprehends Chopin’s Nocturnes in all their expressive variety. Painstakingly, Woodward displays the motifs, the nuances, which make Chopin’s music so interesting… Artur Rubinstein once called the young Woodward one of the best Chopin pianists of the present time. This judgement is still valid today.” Antje Hinz, NDR (North German Radio), 10 June 2006.
BBC Review Roger Woodward, July 2007
the project
“One can’t learn Otte’s music by practicing it but only by reflecting over it as it’s philosophy.” Roger Woodward
It is fitting that Hans Otte’s STUNDENBUCH / BOOK OF HOURS, recorded by pianist Roger Woodward on a Bösendorfer at the Radio Bremen concert hall, is a co-production between Celestial Harmonies and Radio Bremen. The piece was commissioned by Radio Bremen for its Pro Musica nova 1996, the highly regarded biennial festival for contemporary music founded (in 1961) and directed (from 1962) by Hans Otte, during his tenure as Head of Music at Radio Bremen (1959 to 1984). Through this festival, Otte had opened doors to countless composers, had given opportunites to realise ideas and concepts, and had helped composers such as John Cage, David Tudor, La Monte Young, Nam June Paik, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Mauricio Kagel, György Ligeti and Dieter Schnebel.
Quoting from Hans Otte’s programme notes for the Pro Musica nova 1996, “Since 1991 I have once again been working on a large cycle for piano. There can be no better challenge for any composer than writing for this instrument, which has been so closely involved in developing the new musical languages of this century.
“Music is about listening’, as Rauschenberg once said, and it is important for any composer of today to learn from the great artists of the century. As Matisse and Picasso began to eliminate the duality of pictorial space, and Jasper Johns and Rauschenberg continued fifty years later, the change in art toward independent moments of visual perception, where every glance is the present, became clear. And in music it is quite similar, where a non-dualistic experience and conception can offer the listener the freedom of every moment, the liberation from recollection or expectation. In my Stundenbuch I have attempted to follow this path. The whole cycle consists of smaller and larger pieces that follow each other without interuption.”
Writes pianist Roger Woodward, “In the closing years of the twentieth century, perhaps it comes as no surprise that the Bremen pianist-composer, Hans Otte, disciple of the visionaries Walter Gieseking and John Cage, emerges as the unsurpassed master of the sublime, lyric poetry with his composition of a true masterpiece in moment form for piano entitled STUNDENBUCH / BOOK OF HOURS.
“In a universe of exalted, fragmented but delicately-balanced sonorities, the audacious design of time-suspended galaxies in Otte’s highly-intimate, miniature-art and enigmatic but constant shift of movement and mood, form four books in twelve parts each, to span a golden arc extending from prima and seconda prattica to the sonnets of Shakespeare; divine melodic genius of Mozart; inscrutable logic of late-Beethoven; Elysian fields of Schubertian Ländler and Chopinian cantilena of the Nocturnes, in poetic homage and as an inclusive part of his magnificent North-German inheritance.”
Roger Woodward
Queen’s College, Taunton
Sunday July 15th 2007
Roger Woodward is an internationally renowned Pianist who … … has acquired a formidable reputation as an interpreter of a vast range of music, ranging from Bach to Xenakis. He has had a large number of works composed specially for him by some of the 20th century’s most important composers and is valued highly for an almost unique combination of a formidable technique and intuitive ability combined with a razor-sharp intellect, which produces performances of rare insight and beauty.
This combination was very much in evidence in his recital at Queens College in Taunton on Sunday July 15th. Beginning with three of Debussy’s Estampes, composed in 1903, the scene was set for a magical evening. Roger Woodward’s performance of these beautiful, ethereal works seemed to suspend time, each chord lasting simultaneously an eternity and yet a matter of a few brief seconds. The whole was akin to being surrounded by an aura of magical incense.
The spiritual link with the next work, Mozart’s Sonata in B flat major, K570 was made clear immediately. Mozart is no impressionist. Yet, there was the same feeling of clarity within an inspired musical space drawn with vivid colours that was felt in the Debussy. It was a performance of grace and poise that reminded this reviewer of a ballerina taking class.
Last in the first half was an electrifying performance of Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor, BWV903. Roger Woodward’s experience with modern music showed itself in a performance that gripped heart and head in a vice from beginning to end. The effect was to regenerate this masterpiece for the 21st century right in front of our astonished ears. For many people in the audience, this was the highlight of the programme.
But after the interval there was so much more to come. First, there were six mazurkas by Chopin, small dance pieces, which acquired a quite unusual spiritual dimension in the hands of this interpreter. None of them was treated as a mere “salon” piece. All were given their due, and much love and attention. Rachmaninov once said that in composing a piece of music, or in performing a concert, there was a natural flow to it, and a high point that could only be achieved intuitively. If this were missed, the whole point of the work, or the recital would be lost. None of us realised that the final two pieces in the recital, Chopin’s Poloniase-Fantasie in A flat major op.61, and the Barcarole in F sharp major op.60, terrific though the performances were, were simply preludes leading to the high point Rachmaninov mentioned. This was achieved in the absolutely stunning encores played for the totally enraptured audience. In a deafening silence, in which you could have heard a pin drop, Chopin’s Nocturne in D flat op.26 No.2, was followed by two works by Debussy, of increasing emotional intensity and power, the Preludes No.8 from Book 2, “Ondine” and finally, Prelude 12 from Book 2, called “Feu d’Artefue” (Fireworks). This last was the “high point” for everyone in the audience. It was an interpretation of such shocking intensity and power that I could not imagine it being bettered. The “fireworks” went off spectacularly, ending the recital on an enormous high for everyone present.
This was a truly marvelous evening of music which delivered new perspectives on all the composers featured, something of a rarity in any musical genre. Roger Woodward is returning to this country to give another recital during the Christmas period, possibly of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier. On the strength of the stupendous playing of the German Master heard here, that should really be something to look forward to. So keep your eyes on the concert listings and make sure to book your seats at the first opportunity.
© Tim Shuker July 19th 2007
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The Age, Melbourne, Monday 8 March 1982
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Georg Tintner
Beethoven five piano concerti in 2 concerts
...Roger Woodward played the five Beethoven piano concertos last week at the Town Hall in two concerts with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under Georg Tintner. The works were given in numerical sequence…. Woodward can be a delight to watch, something that is true of few pianists… the final E flat concerto was a triumph…..
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The Financial Times, “Music on the West Coast” by Dominic Gill
24 May 1972
Roger Woodward’s US debut performances
The article covers a series of New Music concerts at UCLA where Zubin Mehta directed the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Roger Woodward’s debut performance program was a mixture of a recital of modern music - Australian Richard Meale’s Coruscations, Japanese Toru Takemitsu’s Undisturbed Rest, Cuban, Leo Brouwer’s Sonate piano et fort - as well as Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata. This contemporary music marathon went on to include Xenakis’ Eonta for piano and five brass from the LAPO. The rehearsal was attended by Olivier Messiaen, a personal friend of Iannis Xenakis and his composition teacher, who personally corrected the brass parts during rehearsal. His wife, Yvonne Loriod, was also present at rehearsal, along with comedian Danny Kaye!
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London Proms : Beethoven ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata (July 1972)
This was the first-ever performnace of the ‘Hammerklavier’ at the Proms.
Evening Standard, Christopher Grier, 31 July 19 - Beethoven ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata No 29, Op 106
... by the time he came to write the sonata, he was carving his vision in granite. This was something of which its heroic champion, Roger Woodward, was very well aware… With something of Brendel’s interpretative spontaneity, he called on reserves of sustained insight in the luminous adagio, and on a hugely impressive intellectual and physical stamina for the concluding fugue…
Bartok Sonata for Two Pianos & Percussion (August 1977)
Morning Star, Jane Corbett, 26 August ... Bartok Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion; Stravinsky Concerto for Two Solo Pianos
Polished craftsmanship… Bartok emerged clearly at the top of the list with is Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, demanding extreme virtuosity from the pianists, Noel Lea and Roger Woodward, and from Tristran Fry and James Holland with their aray of drums, xylophone and cymbals. The polished craftsmanship and intelligence involved in every department of this work - in its form, content and success in performance - welded the players and the audience together…..
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Sydney Morning Herald, 22 November 1977, Roger Covell
Brahms First Piano Concert, New Philharmonia, Kurt Masur RCA RS 25031 LP
Roger Woodward - a new maturity
The wild, passionate opening of the recorded performance of Brahm’s first piano concerto .... is immediately convincing. Like Serkin/Szell in their near-perfect reading of the work, Woodward/Masur never allow the slow movement to lose its sense of forward movement…. This is probably Roger Woodward’s most balanced and masterfully noble recording so far…..
PDF version available here.
Music & Musicians, London May 1972
“Scriabin Interpretation” by HLG
...Sviatoslav Richter has succeded Sofronitsky as Russia’s finest interpreter of Scriabin….. Of all the recordings I have heard by younger pianists, the one I found most impressive is that of Roger Woodward playing Sonata No 10 and two early pieces (EMI)....
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The Daily Telegraph, 1 March 1978, Peter Stadlen.
RPO/Masur/Woodward - Rachmaninov’s ‘Paganini’ Rhapsody
...Hovering between these extremes was Rachmaninov’s ‘Paganini’ Rhapsody. Indeed not the least merit of Roger Woodward’s deliciously poker-faced reading was to keep us guessing most of the time whether or not he, and his composer, were in earnest. No such doubts, to be sure, during the gradiloquence of the large slow pseudo-Viennese section….. elsewhere I realised his drily laconic touch, burlesque interjections and last, not least, his superb pianism.
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Christchurch Symphony, Sir William Southgate, Rachmaninov Third Piano Concerto
3 September 2005, reviewed by Ian Dando.
.... Australian pianist Roger Woodward gave us a very different view of Rachmaninov’s Concerto No 3. His massive power and suavely neat control of thick chordal bravura in the first movement cadenza and parts of the finale enabled him the luxury of focusing more on the work’s quieter poetry, not unlike the composer’s own recorded version. The unified rubatos between Woodward and the orchestra in the slow movement typified the close sync between the two. Southgate ‘voiced’ the orchestra with a lovely rich sound filtering up from a deep and secure harmonic base…
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Christchurch Press, September 2005, “Passionate Playing”
.... Woodward played with astonishing calm, tackling this mighty work more as one might a Chopin nocturne. This was certainly a case of less is more, capturing those introspective moods beautifully, but when the occasion demanded getting stuck in boots and all with uncompromising power….. Through Woodward’s interpretation I became much more aware of the 20th century flavours and elements of jazz than I had in more indulgent interpretations…. Here is a player with real integrity….
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Le Monde de la Musique, Paris, 2 December 1976, translation of review by Gerard Conde
Beethoven Reinvented by Roger Woodward
Not satisfied with what he had just offered the audience - a transcendental performance of the “Eroica” Symphony in Liszt’s transcription for piano, Roger Woodward, backstage at the Oblique Theatre, decided to repeat it from beginning to end in the second half. Having surpassed himself once more in the “Appassionata” and “Moonlight” Sonatas…....
.... In this absolute mastery of the dynamic and sound possibilities of the instrument, one perceived familiarity with the contemporary repertoire. This however was only one aspect of a deeper concerpt which did not stop at inspiration and technique. GC.
Roger Woodward is a mercurial magician at the keyboard, able to blend subtle and surprising colours and shapes to create an arc in the air. (Sydney Morning Herald, City Recital Hall recital 24/6/07 with Simon Tedeschi)
A Roger Woodward performance is an event to remember…. one felt that this was a performance that had been considered in every microscopic detail. (From New Zealand tour with NZSO, Yoel Levi, Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto, September 2001)
Roger Woodward, Australia’s frontline concert pianist… gave us an electrifying performance of Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto. Dashing through the score from glittering pianissimo to pounding sonority (straight from the shoulder but never harsh), Woodward turned in a performance that was deftly conceived yet so highly charged it threatened to become explosive.” (NZ Herald Online, 7/9/01)
It was as if Woodward were opening a door and taking us, like Virgil leading Dante, out into an ever-expanding world of wonders. (Laurie Strachan, The Australian, 25/9/92)
Whether concerned with taste or timbre, no composer could have hoped for more from any interpreter than the miraculously beautiful and insightful performances which we heard from Woodward, both as soloist and accompanist. (The Sun Herald, 9/4/95)
Roger Woodward…. astonished the New York Philharmonic’s audiences at the Lincoln Center …. mastered a piano part with passion, strength and understanding. (World Premiere, Xenakis “Keqrops”, NYPO/Mehta) (Nouritza Matossian, Tempo 1987)
Titanic pianist possessed by Prokofiev … more frenetic pianists would simply wear out the listener with a single work. But Woodward is too great a musician for that. (South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, 31/8/91)
Woodward reaches into the soul of music … in a way that other pianists cannot. (Hong Kong Standard, 9/4/88)
Pianists of Woodward’s calibre are rare indeed…. His performance was magical and he captivated the audience. (Dagbladid-Visir, Iceland, 3/4/84)
He is the greatest living performer of contemporary music. (The Listener, New Zealand)
A genius of the piano like Roger Woodward.. the only pianist in the world who plays Xenakis’s music from memory..” (The Guardian, London, 6/1/91)
Half Man, half dragon (Iannis Xenakis, 1987)
Woodward exhibited an instrumental mastery of virtuosity that took one’s breath away. (Trieste Festival, 1990).
His performances are as remarkable to see, as to hear. (Xenakis ‘Eonta’; Benjamin Bar-Am, The Jerusalem Post).
Woodward’s virtuosity served the highest artistic ends… exalted, even sublime in character. (Beethoven Sonatas; Meirion Bowen, The Guardian, London.)
Roger Woodward is a pianist who is always worth hearing, but when he gives a recital of Chopin attendance is almost mandatory. The Australian, 14/3/97.
Magical sounds came from every part of the instrument (Sir Yehudi Menuhin)
Woodward demonstrated a stature as a piano recitalist unrivalled in this country.. (Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, 1990).
EXTRACTS FROM OTHER REVIEWS
Woodward expounded it with flawless concentration and brilliant technical address. (Barraqué Sonata, David Murray, Financial Times, London)
…. showed character and intelligence backed up by fierce technical assurance. (Beethoven Sonatas; Stephen Walsh, The Observer, London).
Woodward’s virtuosity served the highest artistic ends…. exalted, even sublime in character. (Beethoven Sonatas; Meirion Bower, The Guardian, London).
tremendous power was contrasted against the utmost delicacy… (Prokofiev Third Concerto; Malcolm Rayment, Glasgow Herald, Scotland.)
… an explosion of passion for life…. (Prokofiev Sonatas Nos 7 and 8; To Ethnos Athens).
… beautiful, captivating, profound and greatly original execution of (Chopin’s) B Minor Sonata. (Express Wieczomy, Warsaw).
Cataclysm at the keyboard… the virtuosity .. was positively stunning . (Xenakis ‘Eonta’; The Evening Post, Dublin Ireland)
The entire performance was a tour de force of dazzling pianism… (Mary McGorris, Irish Independent)
Roger Woodward…. été tout simplement magnifiques (Claude Samuel, Le Matin, Paris France).
… a highly sensitive, emotional interpretative ability… a prolonged standing ovation. (Bartok 2nd Concerto; N.Barret, Denver News, USA).
Chopin, masterfully played… the near-hypnotic spell of Woodward’s recitals… an awesome feat of memory. (Roger Covell, Sydney Morning Herald, Australia).
A performance that was both brilliant and impeccable. (Beethoven Sonata Op 106, Laurie Strachan, The Australian)
An explosive and impressive pianist. (Bartok 2nd Concerto; Glenn Giffin, Denver Post, USA).
EXTRACTS FROM ALBUM REVIEWS
Brahms Piano Concerto D Minor – Kurt Masur/Philharmonia Orchestra RCA
This is a powerful and distinctive reading. (Edward Greenfield, The Gramophone)
… his playing has a deep resonance that serves the music brilliantly. (Tom Sutcliffe, Vogue)
… an exciting disc – and a substantial achievement of this fascinating pianist. (Dominic Gill, Financial Times, London).
Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues (double album) RCA
Roger Woodward is a pianist of great brilliance and flair… playing is never less than compelling. (Robert Leighton, The Gramophone)
Woodward is a pianist of tremendous flair and virtuosity… a brilliant performer.. (Music and Musicians)
Barraqué Sonata for Piano; Brouwer Sonata; Busotti Pour Clavier – EMI
…. must be one of the best piano recordings ever…
Techique is formidable; every line is clear, ever shade of terraced dynamic visible. (Michael Thorne, Hi-Fi News & Record Review)
Beethoven “Eroica” Symphony (Liszt’s transcription) RCA
… his phenomenal command of musical structure and the flawless rhythmic control… (Tom Sutcliffe, ‘Classical Music’)
Beethoven Opp 57 and 111
…. a superbly gripping performance… like a breath of fresh air. (Denby Richards, Express and News)
Chopin : Allegro de Concert A Maj Op 46; Polonaise F sharp minor Op 4; Barcarolle op 60; 8 Mazurkas – HMV
This is authoritative Chopin playing which impresses for its grasp of style and period…. shows a subtle awareness of rubato which is compatible with the best in Rubinstein…. a distinguished recording. (Music and Musicians)
R O G E R W O O D W A R D
C O N C E R T R E V I E W S
Treasure - Discography
Woodward expounded it with flawless concentration and brilliant technical address (Barraqué Sonata)
David Murray, Financial Times, London
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...a genius of the piano like Roger Woodward, the only pianist in the world who plays Xenakis’s music from memory.
Tom Sutcliffe, The Guardian, London
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...showed character and intelligence backed up by fierce technical assurance. (Beethoven Sonatas)
Stephen Walsh, The Observer, London
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Woodward’s virtuosity served the highest artistic ends…...exalted, even sublime in character. (Beethoven Sonatas)
Meirion Bowen, The Guardian, London
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…delicacy and brilliance in plenty… (Liszt 2nd Concerto) the work of a master pianist (Beethoven Sonatas)
Dominic Gill, Financial Times, London
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...a spacious and intense performance (Schoenberg Concerto)
Peter Stadlen, The Daily Telegraph, London
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Tremendous power was contrasted against the utmost delicacy. (Prokofiev 3rd Concerto)
Malcolm Rayment, Glasgow Herald, Scotland
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...breathtakingly beautiful playing (Beethoven Sonatas)
Fred Blanks, Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
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...a performance that was both brilliant and impeccable (Beethoven Sonata Op. 106)
Laurie Strachan, The Australian, Sydney
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An explosive and impressive pianist… (Bartok 2nd Concerto)
Glenn Giffin, Denver Post, USA
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Roger Woodward…astonished the New York Philharmonic’s audiences at the Lincoln Centre… mastered a piano part with passion, strength and understanding… (Xenakis Keqrops)
Nouritza Matossian, Tempo, London
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...a highly sensitive, emotional interpretive ability… a prolonged standing ovation (Bartok 2nd Concerto)
N. Barrett, Denver News, USA
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Der pianist Roger Woodward brillierte in dem überaus komplexen Keqrops
Lothar Mattner, Die Welt, Germany
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He is one of the truly great pianists of the 80s.
Leif Aare, Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm, Sweden
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...Roger Woodward…été tout simplement magnifiques.
Claude Samuel, le Matin, Paris, France
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His performance was as remarkable to see, as to hear. (Xenakis Eonta)
Benjamin Bar-Am, The Jerusalem Post
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Pianists of Woodward’s calibre are rare indeed. His performance was magical…
Eyjólfur Melsted, Dagbladid-Visir, Iceland
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Chopin, masterfully played…the near-hypnotic spell of Woodward’s recitals…an awesome feat of memory.
Prof. Roger Covell, Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
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Here’s To The Next Time
Woodward Roger Woodward is a pianist’s name becoming more and more evident in the international press. Critics speak only in superlatives end when one has heard him play one can understand why. However what I don’t understand is why the extensive PR material about Woodward does not reveal his age and nationality. My eves tell me however that Woodward is between 40 and 50. My ears tell me that he is one of the truly great pianists of the 80’s. His performance ranges from the essence of a colourful whisper to the most dynamic virtuosity and this shows that he has incredible control over intricate counterpoint line play. Woodward’s repertoire contains about 90 (!) piano and orchestral works - from Bach to Xenakis. His solo repertoire with the complete classical range as 4 foundation is almost unending.
He has a tour at 12 concerts ahead at him in Australia spanning Chopin’s entire works.
He also played Chopin at his Scandinavian debut last week in a way which made me sit upright in my chair, listen and take it all in. No emotional illusions in the name of virtuosity here! Woodward offers only purity of performance.
It was clear right from the start with the initial D-flat major Nocturne where the melodic declamations were entwined with unending silver thread which was only temporarily discontinued in a shimmering cloud of tones before again assuming its ephemeral presence.
Woodward established his personal relationship with Chopin in a magnificently structured Andante Spianato and the accompanying Polonaise. But Woodward is at his most engaging when playing groups of waltzes and mazurkas which he produced as the quintessential Chopin message and pianistic style. He interpreted them with meditative clarity and made every carefully chiseled shade of feeling appear as an absolute value in itself. A sense of strong piano power was a continuous thread through this poetry.
We look forward to the next time, Mr. Woodward.
Leif Aare, Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm, Sweden
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ROGER WOODWARD CONDUCTS ALPHA CENTAURI ENSEMBLE AND SYDNEY DANCE COMPANY AT THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE (26 PERFORMANCES)
Xenakis - Kraanerg
Roger Woodward has an ideal temperament to conduct this overwhelming score. He can he relied on to maintain its striking force without compromise and to identify with its strategies with passion and commitment.
Roger Covell, The Sydney Morning Herald, November 1988
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As an evening of dance, it is outstanding. As an evening of music, it is outstanding. But performed in parallel, the dance inspired by the music yet totally different, the two streams touching yet never merging. it all becomes an astonishing display of the creative process at work. Kraanerg is as much a journey of discovery for the audiences as for the performers. New eras are not easy to establish.
Brian Hoad, The Bulletin, November 1988
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Mass upon mass of sound heaves up towards the roof of the opera Theatre as more still surges from the pit. Here, twenty three instrumentalists led by Roger Woodward are damned if the raging forces driven out of a pre-recorded tape will crush them. The tape is controlled by an additional two men in the pit following Woodward’s superb baton. In the stalls, Rolf Gehlhaar filters the dialogue between something that is still recognisably human and something else that might well be coming from another planet, from primeval time or time future. This is Xenakis’ Kraanerg, without doubt one of the greatest compositions of the 20th century.
Maria Shevtsova, New Theatre Australia January/February 1989
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The Financial Times, 23 October 1972
Music Digest, by Dominic Gill
Jean Barraqué’s Piano Sonata
The Financial Times, 23 October 1972
Music Digest, Dominic Gill
The London Music Digest is a new concert series at the Round House that will present regular programmes over the next few years… the evening recital, played by Roger Woodward, was given over to two performances of Jean Barraqué’s piano sonata - that huge, forbidding and rigorously through-composed serial chef d’oeuvre…. When Woodward gave the first public performance of it in London last year, I found it a difficult, unapproachable work, worthy of much admiration and respect. Last night it seemed no less difficult ... Woodward’s performances above all were very fine: the second especially, an astonishing tour de force in which all the elements melded…..
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The Financial Times, 23 October 1972
Music Digest, by Dominic Gill
Jean Barraque’s Piano Sonata
The Financial Times, 23 October 1972
Music Digest, Dominic Gill
The London Music Digest is a new concert series at the Round House that will present regular programmes over the next few years… the evening recital, played by Roger Woodward, was given over to two performances of Jean Barraque’s piano sonata - that huge, forbidding and rigorously through-composed serial chef d’oeuvre…. When Woodward gave the first public performance of it in London last year, I found it a difficult, unapproachable work, worthy of much admiration and respect. Last night it seemed no less difficult ... Woodward’s performances above all were very fine: the second especially, an astonishing tour de force in which all the elements melded…..
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Karlheinz Stockhausen’s ‘Intervall’ and ‘Kontakte’, Festival Hall, May 1972
reviews Melody Maker (Russel Unwin) 13 May 1972
and The Times (William Mann) 8 May 1972
Roger Woodward and Jerzy Romaniuk, piano
Melody Maker:
....Next ‘Intervall’ played by two pianists, Jerzy Romaniuk and Roger Woodward (who is fast becoming an avant-garde superstar and looks as much into rock as he is into Mozart, Beethoven or Stockhausen) .....
The Times:
... The remaining item ‘Intervall’, was a world premiere, a piano duet for Roger Woodward and Jerzy Romaniuk…. the players are instructed to being with single notes, gradually adding up to 10-note chords…...
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Financial Times, Max Loppert, 12 December 1972
The ROund HOuse, Sylvano Bussotti “Pour Clavier”
Each Music Digest concert is putting Londoners further in its debt : for filling those vast gaps of unknown contemporary music. Sunday night’s was devoted to Sylvano Bussotti, for many years now Italy’s “bad boy” of the avant-garde. ...’Pour Clavier’ was, in a performance of heroic proportions and remarkable virtuosity by Roger Woodward, a disturbing and sometimes beautiful experience….
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Western Daily Press 3 June 1972, Helen Reid.
Bath Festival, Boulez and the BBC Symphony Orchestra
Bartok Piano Concerto No.1
...The soloist in Bartok’s Piano Concerto No 1 was Australian Roger Woodward. While one admired his amazing technique in this fiendishly difficult work, it was hard to take such unrelenting ferocity…. Bartok uses the piano as a percussion instrument only…...
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Sydney Morning Herald, 1992, Record Reviews “The Guide” by Roger Covell
SMH 4 January, ‘The Guide” Roger Covell.
... Woodward’s solo recital for Etcetera of late works by the Russian composer-mystic Alexander Skryabin (KTC 1126), has serious claims to be one of the six finest solo piano recitals released anywhere in 1992. The playing is masterly and the music itself powerfully fascinating…..
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Sydney Morning Herald, July 6 1972, Records reviews by Roger Covell
Chopin, EMI, HMV OASD 7560
Russian music, HMV OASD 7562
Rachmaninov Preludes, HMV OASD 7561
Roger Woodward scales heights in Chopin renditions
It is entirely in keeping with the exuberance and tempo of Roger Woodward’s career and life that three discs of his piano playing have been issued simultaneously from his first recording sessions for EMI….. Woodward stands up to comparisons at the loftiest level ... as a reading of the whole set, Woodward’s recording is better than performances by some of the most famous and efficient pianists of today or yesterday…. three Woodward records are a good staft. Let us have some more, please, as soon as possible..
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Roger Woodward in his lumberjack shirt and Cecil Taylor in yellow boots, looked and sounded utterly different playing composed and improvised piano music, respectively, at a recital given first at the QEH and touring seven cities on the Arts Council’s Contemporary Music Network. In their separate ways these two virtuosi are riveting and should not be missed…..
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It was one of the Arts Council Contemporary Music Network’s most inspired ideas to bring together the two pianists Roger Woodward (from Australia) and Cecil Taylor (from New York) as the two halves of a single touring recital. .... Although the theoretical working of the two musics could hardly be more different, there was a surprising affinity of gesture between Xenakis’s fiery, virtuoso Mists (was there ever a more misleading title?), which Woodward played in the first half, and the immense 70-minute improvisation which Taylor delivered without pause after interval…...
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Roger Woodward and Zubin Mehta astonished New York Philharmonic’s audiences at the Lincoln Center for three nights last November by pivoting the premiere of Xenakis’s piano concerto ‘Keqrops’ between Bach’s Brandenburg 6 and D minor. Each work gained by the contrast. In ‘Keqrops’ Woodward mastered a piano part with passion, strength and understanding, then he glided into graceful rigour and shapely articulation in Bach in a feat few pianists would even contemplate. Woodward is an outstanding interpreter of all Xenakis’s piano works and ‘Keqrops’ was ocmmissioned for him by fellow Australians, the Paroulakis…...
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Les griffures du silence de Morton Feldman..
Quatre-vingt-dix minutes de piano minimal ... Roger woodward a joue ce long tissage sonore en quatre-vingt-une minutes - seulement - a son grand etonnement, avons-nous appris.
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A l’image de sa carriere, qui luit a fait traverser tous les paysages musicaux, ces carnets du pianiste australien Roger Woodward, recueillis pour Le Monde de la Musique, revelent un etonnant Montesquieu. Il joue les 28 et 29 octobre avec l’Orchestre de Paris.
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Pianists of Woodward’s calibre are rare indeed. His performance was magical and he captivated the audience…
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This was inspired programming for a late evening of musical contemplation, and indeed inspired playing. ....
The sonata, all 50 minutes of it, has a monumental place in modern piano literatjure, held more by reputation than direct experience because it has few exponents. Woodward is outstanding among them, and his performance, uncompromisingly grand in the turbulent density of detail that fills the first half of the piece, was nothing less than awesome….
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The Sydney Festival’s programming of Roger Woodward performing the complete works of Chopin was one of its best decisions. Woodward embarked on this historic series in January 1983. Many of his admirers who were present at that and subsequent recitals were back to celebrate with him the close of this extraordinary enterpriese. ... Bravo Roger Woodward! Not only has he given us some memorable concerts, but also a sense of the epic and, above all, indisputable proof of the breadth and depth of Chopin’s achievement.
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Roger Woodward embarked last Monday on a long musical voyage : nothing less than the performance of the entire piano works of Chopin in 12 recitals. The first four recitals take place this week and the completion of the cycle stretches into 1985… No musician would undertake such a task lightly, and there was nothing in these deeply considered, unfailingly interesting performances to suggest that Woodward takes it in the least degree lightly…...
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... Whether concerned with taste or timbre, no composer could have hoped for more from any interpreter than the miraculously beautiful and insightful performances which we heard from Roger Woodward…..
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This was an evening in which two master performers reached across the generations, Woodward distilling some of his finest thoughts in understatement, and Wilkomirska, the pert and fiery elder sage, a lifetime of interpretative perception sublimated into her still-fearsome bow….
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At any one time there’s seldom more than a handful of pianists worldwide who can launch into a recital of Debussy’s Etudes and emerge a half hour or so later with reputation intact. On Friday, Australian musician extraordinaire, Roger Woodward, went one better, coming through with banners flying…..
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Titanic Pianist possessed by Prokofiev.
... Roger Woodward was the man to play a whole evening full of Prokofiev. More frenetic pianists would simply wear out the listener with a single work. But Woodward is too great a musician for that….
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Like all true musical individualists, Roger Woodard makes no compromises. He takes no easy options. He’ll go for spirit over accuracy every time. He’ll take big risks. And if, occasionally, the sheer volatility and theatricality of his temperament come between him and the composer, if occasionally the imagination simply outreaches the know-how (and goodness knows that’s formidable enough) at least he is certain to have something challenging to say…..
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Here’s to the next time, Woodward.
Roger Woodward is a pianist’s name becoming more and more evident in the international press. Criticis speak only in superlatives and when one has heard him play one can understand why…. he is one of the truly great pianists of the 80s. ... Woodward’s repertoire contains about 90(!) piano and orchestral works - from Bach to Xenakis. His solo repertoire with the complete classical range as a foundation is almost unending. ... We look forward to the next time, Mr Woodward.
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A Brahmsian balancing act.Ilya Grubert is naturally a strong violinist, but he reined in his tone to a state of slim purity. James Creitz, warm-hued in timbre but never sloppy in tone, showed how extreme discretion could be combined with a suggestion of power held in reserve… They applied, under Woodward’s artistic leadership and perhaps with the encouragement of Scalfi’s rather recessive but often elegantly lovely cello playing, an unusual sensibility to their task…..
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It is a lesson in musicality to hear Roger Woodward play Chopin’s sonatas. Much of this music becomes a vehicle for empty virtuosity in the hands of many pianists, exaggerated, overprojected and rhetorical. On Sunday at the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, even the finale of the B minor sonata seemed like a poetic vision…..this player is thoughtful, mature, deeply self-critical….. it is pianist’s pianism.
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Woodward’s playing was superb. Approaching the work with the single-minded absorption of a high priest, he captured the lyrical flow…
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It is easy to take a piano recital for granted until a pianist such as Australia’s Roger Woodward comes along and reveals anew the pianist’s skill and the ingenious instrument on which two hands can produce the range of a symphony orchestra…...
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Two Good Ones - (conductor and soloist) - Chopin Concerto, Prokofiev Concerto.
Pianists fo Woodward’s calibre are rare indeed…. his performance was magical and he captivated the audience.
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Titanic Pianist possessed by Prokofiev.
... Roger Woodward was the man to play a whole evening full of Prokofiev. More frenetic pianists would simply wear out the listener with a single work. But Woodward is too great a musician for that….
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An emotional standing ovation, a platform strewn with flowers and streamers, and Roger Woodward’s 25-month, 17-concert journey through the entire works of Chopin was over…..
Woodward is an outstanding Chopin interpreter by any test. Nothing that the composer wrote seems to trouble his confident virtuosity; he has a scholar’s determination to produce an authentic reading, as far as that is possible, of the composer’s intentions; and he shows above all natural sympathy with all the Chopin moods from the playful to the thundersome…..
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Opening the Sydney Spring Festival with a program of music by Debussy, following Roger Woodward’s superlative recital of piano works by the French master at the beginning of last year’s festival, is almost becoming a tradition…...
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. Schubert, Mozart and Debussy. Nothing could be more conventional in prospect as the material of a piano recital. It was wholly characteristic of Woodward that the choice, order and strategy of contrasts in his perforamnce managed to suggest - healthily, I suggest - that each composer can still be heard as a radical and that a pianist of a very special kind can persuade us that we are hearing them as if for the first time.
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Roger Woodward is a pianist who is always worth hearing but when he gives a recital of Chopin attendance is almost mandatory….
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... As Woodward is one of the finest artists to have come from this part of the world, this mood of celebration was fully justified and its expectations were comprehensively rewarded. It was a magnificent recital….
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Woodward is one of those rare soloists who plays the score instead of just the piano, and does so in a way that goes a country mile beyond just making suitable connections with the orchestral tuttis. His dynamic range is remarkable. He can play with feathers on his fingertips, or poleaxe the keyboard, as he did in the astonishing fortissimo double-octave passage in the first movement…...
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Australian pianist Roger Woodward is presenting all 32 of Beethoven’s sonatas in a series of eight recitals, not a novel undertaking to be sure, but one that makes extraordinary demands on the soloist’s technical, physical and intellectual stamina. That he can simply attempt the task is marvel enough, but that he can do so with a consistent excellence, as displayed in the opening program, is cause for high praise…..
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It’s nice to go along to someone’s birthday party and be given a present yourself. On Wednesday night at the Sydney Opera House, Roger Woodward gave the paying guests at his 50th the best of all possible presents - a recital to treasure. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but a Woodward recital is always an Event. So, when it is billed as a Gala Event, what more can you expect? Answer : a Gala Performance. ... The program notes make mention of the fact that some people still don’t think Chopin is really up there with the greats of music…. How anyone could still hold to this view after hearing Woodward play Chopin - and particularly after hearing Woodward play Chopin on Wednesday night - is beyond imagining…
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Anyone who heard Woodward make his way through the fantastic sound-world of this work in a Sydney Symphony Orchestra 20th century concert in the Town Hall will probably want to take the opportunity to hear it a leisure. This recording of his 1992 performance of it in Vienna with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra directed by Claudio Abbado, newly issued by DG in its Modern Vienna series, is an astonishing act of collaboration between a pianist of unique capacities and one of the most eminent and enlightened conductors of our time…..
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Takemitsu Complete Piano works nominated : Record of the Month, Telerama, Paris January 1991
“.... Roger Woodward est epatant. Enregistrement essentiel.” - Telerama, Paris.
Feldman Triadic Memories: Record of the Month, Telerama, Paris June 1991
“Roger Woodward - a qui Triadic Memories est dediee - est tout bonnement sublime.” Telerama, Paris.
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“.... familiar with the works of Xenakis, Feldman, Takemitsu, Kagel, Cage, Boulez, to name but a few, Roger Woodward sets things back on the right track, illuminating all the prophetic, revolutionary aspects of Skryabin, stripping back to the bone. Farewell to honeyed over-elaborations, pompous tirades, smudged mascara. The late works (1911-14) win back their milky colour, regain their lunar state, in the hands of a pianist who knows…...”
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.... Faut-il preciser? Roger Woodward - a qui Triadic Memories est dediee - est tout bonnement sublime.
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Ritmo 1992 - nominates Toru Takemitsu’s Complete Piano Works, Roger Woodward Piano, as
Premios Ritmo - Los Mejores Discos Clasicos de 1991, XXII edicion.
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Compelling and absorbing performances, and proof that Roger Woodward’s interpretative powers extend far beyond the confines of the contemporary, avant-garde music with which he is normally associated…. Most strongly recommended. M.S.
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American Record Guide, Taylor: ... I was not aware of a composer in this work, much less performers - which is probably the best thing I could say about Roger Woodward’s and Alpha Centauri’s performance. Recommended, but not for the fainthearted.
The Observer, Nicholas Kenyon: .... the title means accomplishment and energy : both are found in this terrifying performance.
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Roger Woodward’s refined pianism and communicative skills allow the listener to enjoy this subtle, fastidious music to its full potential….
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Feldman Triadic Memories, Etcetera : Telerama
Faut-il le preciser? Roger Woodward - a qui Triadic Memories est dediee - est tout bonnement sublime.
Takemitsu Piano Works, Etcetera: Gramophone -Roger Woodward’s refined pianism and communicative skills allow the listener to enjoy this subtle, fastidious music to its full potential.
Feldman and Takemitsu, ABC 24 Hours: Woodward has worked extensively with both Takemitsu and the late American composer Morton Feldman, and much of the music recorded is dedicated to him.
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Feldman Triadic Memories Luister, Review from The Netherlands
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Triadic Memories - Piano; Two Pianos; Piano Four Hands; Piano Three Hands
.... Il fallait un pianiste rompu a toutes les experiences, a toutes les difficultes, et dote de moyens pianistiques superieurs pour rendre justice a ces oeuvres-limites : c’est Roger Woodward, et il est parfait.
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Recorded at the Sydney Opera House in conjunction with ballet performances…. clear, detailed sound; good low end. One band for the entire work… interesting essays on Xenakis by Milan Kundera and Richard Toop… strongly recommended.
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Morton Feldman, Triadic Memories, Two Pianos, Piano Four Hadns, Piano Three Hands, Fanfare July/August 1991, Art Lange.
... In fact Woodward’s playing is quite remarkable throughout, especially in Triadic Memories, where he avoids metrical rigidity without resorting to a too loose use of rubato, keeping things in proportion, with patience and obvious loving attention….
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Iannis Xenakis, Krranerg, Alpha Centauri Ensemble directed by Roger Woodward, Score 8.
.... Les musiciens, sous la direction de Roger Woodward, deploie une belle energie, contribuant, autant que l’efficacite de l’ecrit, a faire oublier qu’ils ne sont que vingt trois.
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Morton Feldman’s ‘Triadic Memories’, Piano, Two Pianos, Piano four Hands, and Piano Three Hands, recorded by Roger Woodward (with Ralph Lane) on Etcetera KTC 2015, received a Gold Disc award in January 1992 from Les Diapason d’or.
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also reviewed by Gramophone, A.W. ... the performance is dazzling, and I come firmly into the ‘bowled over’ rather than the ‘baffled’
Roger Woodward par Jean Barraqué: Une belle histoire, en somme. Car cela en est toujours une pour un compositeur…...
par Iannis Xenakis: Mi homme, mi dragon…..
letter from Iannis Xenakis to Roger Woodward on preparation of Keqrops
Pianist Possessed - by Wilfred Mellers, “New Statesman”
London 1971
Sviatoslav Richter reflections : La soiree americaine me sera aussi l’occasion d’entendre enfin en concert le pianiste Roger Woodward, que je ne connais que par les disques…..
Feldman on Woodward ....
Les Carnets de Roger Woodward…...
RELATED ARTICLES:
- Jean Barraqué letter
- Xenakis on Woodward “Mi Homme Mi Dragon”
- “New Statesman” London 1 October 1971 Pianist Possessed by Wilfred Mellers
- Sviatoslav Richter comments on Woodward’s performances (Le Monde de la musique)
- Feldman on Woodward… Give my regards to Eighth Street
- Les Carnets de Roger Woodward
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Sydney Morning Herald, April 2002, Peter McCallum : A fine vintage. This is vintage Woodward performing vintage Debussy : a clear, luxurious recorded sound, a distinctive yet discreet musical personality and an imaginative, immaculate control of piano sonority are informed by reverence for the composer’s text. It is playing distilled from a lifetime’s experience with this music, with each performance commanding individual attention and respect…. it is a set to return to again and again.
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“Roger Woodward compt parmi les musiciens internationaux du premier plan à notre époque”
(Toulouse)